Italy wins World Cup men’s team sprint race

SAPPORO – Christian Zorzi, a member of Italy’s gold medal-winning squad in the men’s 4×10-kilometer relay at the Turin Olympics, and teammate Loris Fransnelli won a World Cup cross country team sprint race Saturday.

The Italians beat Norway’s Johan Kjoelstad and Eldar Roenning in a photo finish after covering the Shirahatayama course in 14 minutes, 46.0 seconds. Tobias Angerer and Axel Teichmann of Germany took third in 14:49.4.

In the women’s team sprint, Germany’s Claudia Kuenzel and Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle won in 14:11.5. Riitta Liisa Lassila and Pirjo Manninen of Finland took second 14.4 behind, followed in third by Sweden’s Britta Norgren and Anna Karin Stroemstedt another 0.1 back.

All pairs of host Japan failed to advance to the finals in both the men’s and women’s events, including Madoka Natsumi and Nobuko Fukuda, who teamed up to finish eighth in the Turin Olympics.